Sal Cortez loved gardening, and back in 1974 he moved his family to a home on a half-acre lot in Corona to plant more trees and flowers.

He grew all kinds of things, but nothing as successful or enduring as the jewelry shop that bears his name.

Sal left us in 2004, 10 years after losing his beloved wife and high school sweetheart, Jesse. But he left behind a thriving business in the Corona Mall that his sons, Dan, 67, and Moses, 64, continue to operate.

The Corona Mall has gone downhill, not with the speed of an Olympic skier but agonizingly slow as one business after another shut down. It bears little resemblance to the thriving retail center that opened in 1969 with Cortez Jewelers and Emerson-Pauly Menswear in the first completed building.

The one constant between then and now is Cortez Jewelers. A few units remain privately owned. The rest are either vacant or leased on a month-to-month agreement with the city. With the end of redevelopment â" thatâs a separate story â" the future of the mall is anyoneâs guess.

Cortez Jewelers is the last of the original business in the mall with an âOpenâ sign on the door. I dropped in the other day just to see how the brothers are doing. And theyâre doing fine, having survived the recession, the loss of foot traffic and the movement of retail business to The Crossings, McKinley Street and other areas.

They depend on discretionary spending, of course. No one needs to buy a bracelet or necklace (unless youâre in big trouble with your spouse), so the recession was particularly scary. They donât offer special deals or match competitorâs prices. There are no Black Friday events.

âWe never run sales, and we donât play games by marking up prices to mark them down,â Moses said. âWe have to create our own business.â

Just then, two customers arrived to buy batteries for their watches. When it comes to customer service, Nordstrom could learn from the Dan and Moses, who installed the batteries and made the customers feel like they had just purchased a 10-carat ring.

âWhen they need jewelry, theyâll think of us,â Moses said.

He and Dan were kids when their parents opened Cortez Jewelers.

âWe used to hang around the store after school,â Dan said.

Neither initially planned to work there, but the business grew and Sal needed help. Dan came on board in 1972 and Moses joined him in 1980.

From time to time, the brothers have considered a new location.

âIn 2007,â Dan said, âwe had an offer from the city to sell and relocate.â

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